The Pink Haired Boy in the Windowsill
by xTsukiakari
Summary: With Lisanna's return from Edolas comes a torrent of confusion for Natsu, as it seems the young girl he once knew is all grown up. Naturally, who better to go to for guidance than his teammate Lucy?
1. Nothing's How I Thought It Would Be

_**A/N**_: This is set shortly after Lisanna's return from Edolas.

Fairy Tail ©Hiro Mashima

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><p>"Well, you see Mr. Reporter Person, this whole experience has been more humbling than anything else. I mean, I would never have expected to receive such an honor!" Lucy put a hand to her heart , making sure to look as genuinely modest as possible when inside she was screaming, <em>HELL YEA! ABOUT TIME, SORCERER WEEKLY!<em>

"Always so modest, Ms. Heartfilia! Would you say that there's any… bad blood between you and Mirajane since you've taken her title as the most attractive and most popular wizard in Fiore?" This reporter was about a million times cuter than the last loser Sorcerer Weekly sent to Fairy Tail, much to Lucy's relief. He actually looked a lot like Hibiki… _Hmm_…

"Oh, no, of course not! Mirajane is mature enough to admit when someone happens to be prettier than she is, it really can't be helped~" she threw in a wink for good measure. "Mirajane and the rest of Fairy Tail have been very supportive and I couldn't ask for anything more!" _I'm a natural at this! _she thought, smiling to herself.

"Excellent! So, Lucy…" a pause.

She batted her eyes at him and was sure it looked adorable. "Yes?" she added once the pause became a bit too long.

"Lucy…" his hand reached out and touched her shoulder.

_Oh no… maybe I laid the "super-cute" on too thick…_ "Mr. Reporter… Person? I um… I'm flatte—"

Just then, he shook her. "Lucy." Again. "Lucy." Again. "Luce…" This time was more of a squeeze.

"LISTEN BUDDY, JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU—" and just as she was about to serve him a roundhouse kick to the face, something strange happened. The guild and everyone in it was starting to melt away. And the reporter kept shaking her, as though nothing was happening. She finally brought her focus back to him and noticed he was melting, too. His face and hair were melting, contorting. She then shut her eyes as tightly as she could, held them that way, and slowly began to open them once more.

"Lucy." Shake. "Wake up." Squeeze.

Groaning, she finally turned over, "I'm awake," she grumbled to the pink haired boy in the windowsill above her bed.

"LUCY, WAKE UP!"

"I SAID I'M AWAKE, IDIOT!"

Natsu was about to make a smartass comment, but Lucy was in scary mode so he decided against it. "Hey um, can I sleep here tonight?"

She sighed, staring at her bedsheets. "Natsu, you really need to stop showing up here unannounced all the—" her eyes then traveled up to his as he sat in the window, "—time…" This was the first time she'd actually got a good look at him. He was peering at the floor, brow furrowed, eyes slowly leering left and right, and for a second, she could swear she heard him heavily sigh to himself. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing!" he proclaimed, shaking his hands in front of him with a fake grin. Lucy raised a suspicious eyebrow and his grin began to fade. "Well it's… about Lisanna."

She froze for a moment, nervous for some reason, before shaking it off. _It's probably nothing. Natsu is an idiot, he probably just took something she said the wrong way and got offended or something_, she thought to herself. "Shut the window behind you, I'll go make up the couch…" It was then she realized she had no couch. She had to throw out her old one because of Natsu and Happy's bright idea the last time they were over. _("Natsu, look at all the fish I caught! Where should I put them all?" "I dunno, just throw them on her couch or something." "Great idea! I want to eat them now but they're cold…" "No worries, lil' buddy! I got ya!" "Thanks Natsu!" "Ugh, what's that awful sme—DID YOU JUST SET MY COUCH ON FIRE?" "Aye!" "Happy made me do it!"_). "How could I forget," she said to herself, rolling her eyes. "I'll um… I'll think of something."

"I don't mind sleeping here," he was already under the covers of her bed, most of his clothes off and quite at home.

"And where exactly am _I_ supposed to sleep?"

"In your bed. Duh."

"You mean… you want to sleep in the same…" her face turned a very deep shade of crimson as she turned away and squished her cheeks with her hands. _Sleep in the same bed? With Natsu? In my jammies?_ She then took a breath and slowly turned back around

Natsu was completely stone-faced, and maybe a little puzzled. "Uh, yea. Quit actin' weird." It was then it dawned on Lucy that Natsu, with his Natsu reasoning, didn't see anything wrong with two teammates sleeping in the same bed. And if he didn't, well, why should she?

…Okay, she still found it very weird, but she was at least going to pretend as though she didn't.

"Sorry, must be my sleepiness making me a bit loopy!" With a bit of nervous laughter she slowly climbed into bed, trying not to touch anything else but herself and her side of the bed. A small silenced passed before she remembered that Natsu probably needed to talk. "So, you mentioned Lisanna…?" She hadn't been back home from Edolas for long, but Lisanna and Natsu had been spending a good chunk of time together. He hadn't been breaking and entering into Lucy's apartment as often, that was for sure. When he wasn't on missions with the team, he was with her. When they were hanging around the guild, having a drink, he'd find her. Lucy would never have admitted it out loud, or even to herself, but things were a little too quiet without him around all the time.

"Yea." He had his arms folded behind his head, staring at the ceiling. "She's mad at me."

She turned her head to look at him, slyly smiling, "Oh yea? What'd you do this time?"

"Nothing I swear! I just… we were talking, and I was just telling her about you guys, and outta nowhere she just yelled at me and stormed off." For the first time that night, he seemed just a tad… uncomfortable.

"That can't be the whole story. What exactly did she say before she ran off?"

"Oh, I dunno, something about… 'why can't you think about anything except missions and adventure' and 'what am I to you,' stuff like that." Lucy bit her lip. That was all she needed to hear to piece everything together. "I thought that everything would be like how it was before… but she's been acting like a crazy person and I just don't know what the hell's going on."

_What should I do…?_ _Should I tell him? Is that my place?_ "Natsu, she wasn't frozen in time all those years, you know," she began, as delicately as she could. "She's grown up. And it sounds like she's expected you to have grown up as well." Noticing his face contorting into protest, she quickly amended, "Not to say that you haven't grown up! You've just grown to a different place." She then turned completely on her side to face him, holding her head up with one hand. "She's on one plateau, and you're on another. It seems like she was hoping you'd both grown into the same mindset."

He was silent, staring at the ceiling as though he'd bore a hole into it with his eyes. Deep in thoug—"Huh?"

_Did he seriously not get any of that?_ "Um… okay, to put it in different terms, you both received two different types of training, and have grown stronger in different ways that aren't really compatible."

"Oh! Well… that's too bad. I wish there was something I could do to fix it." He then rotated on his side, his position mimicking Lucy's. "It's kinda funny… I wished for Lisanna to come back for as long as I can remember. And now that she's here… I dunno, nothing's how I thought it would be."

Meanwhile, Lucy's face had flushed once more as he was now incredibly close to her face, just now realizing how small her bed was now that there was someone else in it. "W-well, give her a little time. I'm sure she'll sit you down and try to explain everything soon." She decided that it certainly wasn't her place to tell him Lisanna's feelings.

He smiled, probably for the first time that evening. "Thanks, Lucy." His other hand reached up and playfully tousled her hair, much like how he would with Romeo sometimes. After a couple seconds, he stopped, and without even thinking about it he softly pushed the hair out of her face. The entire moment barely lasted a few seconds, but it felt like hours to Lucy.

"Oh, um… no problem! Glad I could help." They were both still locked in the same position. "So… can I go back to sleep now?" she finally added after the small silence with a sleepy smile.

"Yea, I'm pretty tired, too," he replied, slowly turning onto his back as he yawned. "Night, Luce."

Lucy turned away from him, hiking her blanket up. "Goodnight, Natsu."


	2. He Promised We Would Be a Family

**A/N** - Not much NaLu going on in this chapter so it's a lot shorter, but I had to get this scene out of the way so, here it is ^^; [[Oh, and I forgot to mention, thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! You're all so nice! I didn't think this story was very good when I typed it up so I'm glad that some people like it ^^]]

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><p>"You gonna tell us where you been running off to every other night, Erza?" Natsu wasn't the only one who'd been around less and less lately. Gray could care less about that, but Erza disappearing wasn't something that was going to be left unquestioned, not if he had anything to say about it. Lucy thought it was best to never question anything Erza did, but was secretly curious about where she'd been going as well. <em>If Gray wants to sacrifice himself, <em>she thought, _good news for me, that means I don't have to be the one who asks her!_

Erza had been drinking a beer, but for some reason at that moment decided to guzzle the entire thing before answering him. "I've told you. Solo missions. Confidential. Direct orders from Master."

Natsu and Happy were opposite Erza and Gray at their table, along with Lucy, "How come the old man didn't give ME any solo missions? Erza gets to go on top secret jobs and I don't? What a crock of shit! I'm just as strong as you! I can handle it! Ain't that right, Happy?"

"Aye!"

"I'll tell you why, Natsu. Because those confidential solo missions don't exist. I asked." Gray had turned his entire body to look straight at her. She hadn't lifted her gaze from her empty pint, completely stoic except for the occasional twitch of an eyebrow. "And you know what else? Wakaba was on a job real early one morning and says he saw you coming out of Lamydia Forest, northeast. And I think we all know what's just beyond that fore—"

"The magic council! _The prison_!" Lucy blurted out. As soon as those words left her lips she squeaked and covered her mouth, wanting to crawl into a hole somewhere and die.

Both of Erza's fists collided with the tabletop. "_Enough_." Lucy braced herself for an ass-beating. "I was trying to protect you by keeping it a secret, but it seems I underestimated your deductive reasoning skills." She took a long breath. "I was indeed coming from the prison. I have… been going to see Jellal."

Natsu nearly choked on his beer. "YOU'VE BEEN VISITING JEL-MRMPH."

Lucy quickly muffled him with her hand. "THIS IS EXACTLY WHY SHE DIDN'T WANT TO TELL US ANYTHING, YOU IDIOT."

"Well, partially. What I am doing is very illegal, and very dangerous. The less people who know about this the better, the last thing I need is for you all to get mixed up in all this."

"Erza," Gray began, "you should have said something. At least now we'll be able to cover for you if something goes wrong."

"Yea, or come save you when you get caught~!" added Natsu once he was un-muzzled.

"In the rare event that I am captured I should be able to handle it myself," Erza replied with a scoff.

"Hey, Erza?" Happy flew across the table to her. "Gray said that Wakaba said he saw you coming back in the morning."

"Correct."

"What were you doing there all night?"

"Actually, that's a good question," added Gray, placing a hand to his chin.

"Whaddaya do, read him bedtime stories or something?"

Lucy had never seen Erza so pale. "That's no concern of yours and the three of you would do well not to pre…"

As intrigued as she was by these new developments and the inevitable Erza ass-kicking that would soon befall those three, her attention was diverted to the bar. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lisanna and Mirajane talking. Lisanna was visibly upset, but it was impossible to make out what she was saying from where Lucy was sitting. After a few moments of hesitation, her curiosity for Lisanna's situation outweighed that of Erza's. "I'm gonna go grab a drink." She didn't bother to wait around for a response and quickly made her way to the bar, bringing a book with her.

Luckily for Lucy, Mirajane didn't notice her approach and continued to discourse with Lisanna several barstools away. ". . . that's all you have to remember. I'm sure it's not anything against you personally. You know how he can be. Just… oh, please don't cry, Lisanna." Lucy had her eyes glued to her book, fixated on one particular spot and clearly not reading it, as she listened.

"It's just… he promised… we would be a family…"

"You _are_ a family! He loves you just as much as he would any flesh and blood—" Lucy heard her stop abruptly and her eyes began to dart across the pages of her book. _Damnit!_ "Let me go take care of Lucy, I'll be back," she added, giving her sister a loving squeeze on the arm. "Lucy~! What can I get you?"

"Hey, Mirajane." Lucy attempted to look as genuinely cheery as Mirajane always was. "Just came over to grab a pint."

"Hmm, I think we might be tapped out. I'll have to run to the back to restock. It'll be a few minutes, that okay?"

"Of course! Take your time, no rush." Without thinking, she glanced over in Lisanna's direction, locking eyes with her for just a moment before hurriedly turning back to her book. _Oh God oh god oh god what should I do? Should I try to talk to her? I'd probably make her feel worse! What if she asks me about Natsu? What would she expect me to say? I can—_

"Hi, Lucy."

"Lisanna! Hi! Are you… I mean, you seem upset…"

"Sorry for keeping your teammate hostage these past few weeks," she began, smiling through her tears. "I just wanted to spend some time with him. But, he's all yours again, I'm sure your team just wasn't the same without him," she added as she took a seat next to Lucy.

"Oh, please don't apologize! I completely understand. Besides, it was a nice little Natsu-free vacation for us. And I'm sure he was just as excited to be spending time with you as well, and… Lisanna? Are you… oh no, no, don't cry, please! Did I say something wrong? Do you need some tissue?" _Oh, God_, _Mirajane is gonna think I made her cry and she is totally going to turn all scary-psycho-demon-lady on me_, Lucy thought with a quivering lip.

"He wouldn't stop… he couldn't stop talking about you…" Both hands were clenched into fists, head down as tears fell upon the bartop.

"Oh, you mean the team? I bet he was just excited to tell you about everything you missed, you know how he—"

"_No_," she said suddenly, in a tone that Lucy had never heard Lisanna use before. It was deliberate, though not harsh, and with a hint of exasperation. "_You_. He could not stop talking about _you_, Lucy." She finally looked up and managed to smile once more. "I think I may know more about you from the past couple weeks than you've learned about me since we first met. Funny, ne?"

Lucy was completely frozen aside from her shaky hands. "Lisanna, I… I don't…"

"It's okay. Really. A long time ago he promised we'd be a family, so now it's my job to make sure he's safe, happy and supported. It may not be the kind of family I had in mind, but it's family all the same." She took a breath, wiping some of her tears away. "Could you tell Mira-nee that I'll see her back at home?" Lucy nodded in silence as she watched her leave the guild.

"Whew! Sorry about that, Lucy. That took a lot longer than I thought it would! We seem to be running pretty low on spirits since Cana and Master decided to have another drinking competition earlier this afternoon." Mirajane finally emerged from the back room with a pint that wasn't quite full. "Looks like you nabbed the last—" She stopped as she noticed Lisanna's seat empty, placing Lucy's glass down. "Hm, did you happen to see where Lisanna went to? Did she still seem… upset? I really hope she hasn't run off to do something irrational…"

"She um… told me to tell you she'd meet you at home. She was a bit upset but she seemed… okay."

"Sounds like she'll be fine for now. I'll have to catch up with her later… Oh, Lucy? Are you feeling well, dear?"

"Pardon?"

"Well, it's just you look a bit clammy… and your hands are shaking. I'll fetch you some water."

Once Mirajane turned to leave Lucy took a hold of her pint and downed the entire thing in all of six seconds before slamming it back down on the bar.


	3. We're Nakama

**A/N:** Part of the reason why I wanted to write this is because it's been so long since I've written anything, I'm afraid that I've gotten severely rusty ;~; So the fact that people seem to enjoy this is so great *u* It's far from my best work, just something fun to pass the time I guess ^^;

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><p>Lucy almost always was in favor of baths. When she just needed to have a bit of a pensive moment, or brainstorm for her novel, she'd sit in the bath. However, there were times when she just needed a kick in the teeth, and she'd shower instead. So there she stood, head back, completely still as the piping hot water thrashed her, trying to make sense of her life.<p>

It'd been just under a week since the whole Lisanna debacle. Things were more or less back to normal and Natsu hadn't spoken to Lucy about her since. Lucy had just been trying her hardest to pretend as though nothing had happened, but Lisanna's words seemed to follow her wherever she went.

"_He wouldn't stop talking about you."_

She didn't believe it. Even as she stood there in the shower she still couldn't believe it. "What could he possibly have to say about me?" she said to herself, slamming down on the faucet and cutting off the water. As she toweled herself off, she started to think to herself. Specifically, what did she _really_ think of Natsu? Didn't hurt to be prepared for these sorts of things, right? _I owe him. A lot, _she began, changing into an old shirt to sleep in. Hell, she'd probably still be nothing more than a Fairy Tail fan if it hadn't been for Natsu. Aside from that, he was probably the most genuinely good person she'd ever met; before he came along she didn't even think people like that existed in the real world. As she sat down at her desk, she thought back to how she felt, not only during the hard times, but the not-so-hard times as well. Whenever she was sick and out of commission, he'd do anything and everything to try and make her feel better. Anything from bringing her soup to, well, uprooting a giant tree from a festival and displaying it outside her window, he'd do it. _He's just a nice guy. We're nakama. That's all._ True as that may have been, Lucy tried to think of an occasion where Gray or Erza had done something similar, in an attempt to cheer her up or otherwise.

She couldn't.

Of course that didn't undermine the fact that they were her friends, they cared about her, they were always there to support her, and have helped her through some of the most difficult times of her life. _Maybe it's… different with Natsu?_

Her head hit the desk with a _thud_.

_This is crazy. What the hell am I doi—_

"Oh, good, you're awake!"

"WAH!" The voice from her windowsill scared her right out of her chair as she not-so-gracefully hit the floor.

"Lucy, what are you doing on the floor?" he asked curiously, tilting his head as she slowly stood and rubbed her rear in pain.

"YOU SCARED THE HELL OUTTA ME!" Of course it was Natsu. Funny, she didn't remember leaving the window open… "What d'you need?" she added with a sigh as she walked over to the window.

"Well, um…" his eyes slowly traveled to his feet.

"Lisanna again?"

"Sorta. Hey, can I sleep over?" he replied, never one to beat around the bush.

Well, at least he was asking permission. "Yea, sure. Hurry up and get out of that window, it's getting drafty." He obliged, closing the window behind him. Lucy went to cut out the lights, "Still haven't found a new couch, so I guess just…" she turned and saw that, once again, he was already mostly unclothed and under the covers of her bed, nearest to the window. "Yea, that." She then carefully maneuvered into bed. It was already warm. "So what's going on?" She'd brought her hands to her chest; As she learned the last time he was there, her bed was rather small with the two of them in it, if she moved around anymore than that she'd have been sprawled all over him.

One hand behind his head, and the other to gesture, she could see him grinning, even in the dark. "You were right, Luce! I talked to Lisanna today and she explained everything."

Lucy's face began to pale. "Oh d-did you? What um… what exactly did she say?"

"She said she was sorry for yelling at me, and that the move back here from Edolas had a weird affect on her or something. Then she said she wants us to be close friends, like we always were and have been." He turned his head to look at her, "So things can go back to how they were, just like how I thought they would be! Yes!"

_Wait, so she didn't…?_ "So, that was all she said? Nothing else…?"

"Nope, that's pretty much it."

She breathed a sigh of relief, "Well, that's great. I'm glad things worked out." _For one of you guys, at least…_ she thought with a frown.

"Good thing you're here! To be honest I dunno who else I would talk to about that kind of… stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Yea. You know… weird girl stuff."

She rolled her eyes and turned on her side, away from him. "Of course, apparently I am the resident authority on all things weird."

"Well, yea, you are pretty weird, Luc—ow! Hey!" She delivered a swift kick to his leg and they both had a good laugh. A silence passed between them, but, in a way Lucy couldn't quite explain, it wasn't uncomfortable. "Hey, Luce?"

"Mm?"

"Does anyone else ever sleep over?"

She thought about it for a moment and slowly turned onto her back again. "Well, Gray and Erza somehow find their way into my apartment on a semi-regular basis, but they don't ever stay the night. No one else does either. Why?"

"I dunno. Someone else sleeping here makes me feel weird."

She started to laugh, "Natsu, what are you talking abo—" Just then she turned her head to look at him and noticed that his cheeks were beginning to turn the same color as his hair as he stared intently at the ceiling. _Is that… is that what I think it is?_

He noticed her staring at him and it suddenly looked like he was attempting to shake out the blood rising to his face. "What? It was just question!"

_Is he embarrassed…? What the hell's going on?_ It seemed his blush was contagious because before long Lucy's face began to turn the same shade of pink when it dawned on her what he was getting at. "Um, Natsu…"

"Can we sleep now?" He was… almost pouting.

She nervously laughed, shaking her head in disbelief and turning away from him once more, pulling the blankets up to her chin. "Sure." They bid each other goodnight and it wasn't long before she heard his happy snoring.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Sunlight slowly crept into Lucy's apartment and beams of light decided to settle on her eyelids, waking her up despite the fact that she refused to open her eyes. She felt extremely warm, but not uncomfortably so. She probably should have had Natsu leave the window cracked... _Just a little longer…_ She just wanted to sleep in a tiny bit longer. It really was very, very, so very warm. The soft sheets, her pillows, the warm breathing against the back of her neck…

Her eyes shot open. _Wait, WHAT?_ She looked down and saw Natsu's arm wrapped around her waist, pinning her to him, and her brain went into panic mode. _OhGodOhGodOhGod, I have to get out of this before he wakes up!_ She then slowly began to inch her way to the edge of the bed, and she was almost there, when she suddenly squeaked.

He'd pulled her back in his sleep and she was now even closer against him than she was before.

She could feel his lips at the shell of her ear and her face turned a serious shade of red. Thankfully she was facing away from him. _Okay,_ she thought, _he can't keep me pinned like this forever. At some point he's gotta shift or roll over or something…_ So she decided to wait it out. However, Lucy found as time went on, she became less and less concerned with her plan of escape and the prospect of just laying there for a while became more and more appealing. Before she knew it she was almost subconsciously shifting her way closer to him. It was nice. It was nice to not wake up alone. It was nice to be close to someone. Not just anyone, though; she was glad it wasn't just anyone in bed with her. The symphony of soft sounds made her eyes grow heavy… the birds outside her window, the quiet breathing, the early morning hum of the town…

The color drained from her face as a frightening realization dawned on her.

Natsu wasn't snoring. He hadn't been since she woke up.

_OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod_, her hands became rigid. _How long has he been awake for? Should I wake up? Does he know I'm awake? Wh—_

Just then, she felt him start to move around and quickly shut her eyes, making herself go as limp as possible. She felt one arm underneath her while the other was still over her waist. The two worked in harmony to slowly shift her onto her back. She had never seen him be so… ginger. Natsu, who was usually so reckless and tactless, was actually being… careful with her. She then felt his arms slip away, and the warmth that was at her ear slowly dissipated.

She had to work very, very hard to keep her face completely blank and not frown.

After a few moments she felt a hand gingerly sweep the hair from her face, and (what felt like) his pinky finger lightly brush her lower lip in the process. She felt him linger there for a bit before his weight left her bed and she finally heard the window open and close.

She immediately shot up, breathing as though she had just been holding her breath (she probably had been and didn't realize it), touched her face, and with a sigh collapsed back onto her bed, wanting to go back to sleep and never wake up.


End file.
